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Women's Words of Wisdom

© Sandra Linville

"The history of all times, and of today especially, teaches that...women will be forgotten if they forget to think about themselves."
Louise Otto, (Luise Otto-Peters)
German feminist, 1849

This quote from a novelist who demanded full equality for women joins other words of wisdom at Women in World History. To celebrate Women's History Month, twenty-nine quotes from various women throughout history are offered as examples of women's words of wisdom.

A particularly telling quote is from Jane Austen's book, Northanger Abbey: "History...tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars and pestilences in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all - it is very tiresome."

Times have changed a bit and more women are being highlighted in the history curriculum and books, but more can be done to expand their place. There are many ways to review history, but to narrow our studies of history to the great battles or to the words of only a small portion of the population distorts the past which in turn will diminish the present and future. We need the words of women throughout history.

In 1989, when college librarian Liz Linton began helping a student locate a Gloria Steinem speech, she was surprised to find the exercise so difficult. Linton wanted to develop a system for people to find the words of women in leadership. With seed money and subsequent grant money from Sweet Briar College, she began Gifts of Speech, a web-based archive of speeches by influential, contemporary women in October 1996. Most of the speeches are sent to the site by women who gave the speech and most haven't been published on paper. They also mine U.S. government documents.

After secondary school teachers requested speeches by women of the 1800s, many were copied from published sources and are now included in the archives.

Words from suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton

One of those speeches included was Elizabeth Cady Stanton's address to the first anniversary of the American Equal Rights Association: "...When we base nations on justice and equality, we lift government out of the mists of speculation into the dignity of a fixed science. Everything short of this is trick, legerdemain, sleight of hand. Magicians may make nations seem to live, but they do not. The Newtons of our day who should try to make apples stand in the air or men walk on the wall, would be no more puerile in their experiments than are they who build nations outside of law, on the basis of inequality.

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